Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Goldring, I am a little uncomfortable answering that question. First of all, I would not like to see the Canadian private sector dismiss the Burkinan mining industry. On the contrary, I would like to see a stronger Canadian presence there because, as I said at the outset, we

Foreign Affairs committee  This is a question from someone with extensive experience both in Africa and on the political scene. In terms of what is causing instability in the sub-region, the factors in play vary from one country to the other. Togo, for example, was led by a single party for 30 or more yea

Foreign Affairs committee  First of all, at the political level, the government introduced legislation which was passed by the National Assembly and which requires that a minimum number of seats be reserved for women in each political party. Secondly, the government has established various funding structu

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Ms. Mathyssen. Obviously, I cannot… It goes without saying that our vote is not for sale. However, we do have friendly relations, strong relations that go back to the days following our independence. We wrote to the Canadian government to say—and I believe I

Foreign Affairs committee  Ah!… You should have told me that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Parliamentary Secretary. I stated, right at the outset, when the first question was put to me, that, in actual fact, we are not talking about a reduction in CIDA's activities. When the first question was put to me by the member, I stated that, on the contrary, in some

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, please excuse me. I just want to say that, when I met with Minister Cannon in Addis-Ababa a few days ago, he assured me that there is no particular problem in terms of maintaining your embassy in Ouagadougou.

Foreign Affairs committee  I said at the beginning that we need the assistance of developed countries. As you know, OECD developed countries pledged to devote 0.7% of their gross domestic product to official development assistance. Thus far, very few countries have achieved that goal. Furthermore, the inte

Foreign Affairs committee  Exactly.

Foreign Affairs committee  Although I said “psychologically speaking”, the same obviously applies at the diplomatic and political levels as well. When you are friends with another country and your trade is increasing… I understand Canada's sensitivity to issues such as governance, gender equality and mothe

Foreign Affairs committee  Should I answer immediately? All right. I would like to thank you for your question, and especially for the longstanding friendship you have shown to Burkina Faso. As I said, private Canadian companies are very dynamic in Burkina Faso. We also recognize that in recent years, c

Foreign Affairs committee  In fact, CIDA people are not the ones who informed us. I believe it was the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade that decided, for a variety of reasons, to reduce the number of focus countries from 25 to 20, as I recall. In terms of the current list of focus coun

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. To begin with, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for the warm welcome I and my entire delegation have received since arriving in Canada. I particularly appreciate this opportunity to appear before your distinguished Committee. I will make